Rampell: Few People in American History ‘Have Done More to Screw over Farmers than Trump’

EXCERPT:

RAMPELL: "I think few people in American history have done more to screw over farmers than Donald Trump has in a very compressed period of time. If you look at what’s happened to farm bankruptcies, they rose 46 percent last year, and that’s not only because of Trump policies, to be clear, but it’s largely because of Trump policies, through tariffs which raise their input costs for things like fertilizer, for the equipment that they need. The tariffs also led to countries around the world basically boycotting American goods. China stopped buying soybeans entirely for awhile, and that’s obviously hurt farmers in a lot of the states that you just rattled off. You have Trump deporting a large share of their labor force. Their interest rates are really hurting farmers as well, and then you have little notice, I think, by much of the media, but the cancellation of a bunch of food aid programs."